Trend Micro Secures the Amazon Cloud

Security is obviously still a top-of-mind issue when it comes to cloud computing. But as IT organizations become more comfortable with public cloud computing, they are finding ways to secure external cloud services.

Compatible with Amazon application programming interfaces, the Trend Micro security software for the Amazon cloud includes host-based intrusion detection/prevention and firewall, hosted on AWS. Other capabilities include anti-malware, web reputation, and file integrity monitoring software that can all be managed via customizable policy templates that can be accessed via a single administrative console.

According to Steve Neville, director of cloud and data center security at Trend Micro, the Trend Micro security software running on AWS automatically detects new instances of virtual machines on AWS and applies the appropriate security policy.

Meanwhile, version 3.5 of Trend Micro SecureCloud encryption software is now compatible with cloud deployment tools such as RightScale, AWS CloudFormation, Chef, and Puppet, and provides enhanced boot and volume data protection.

Neville says Amazon in particular is getting better at being more explicit in terms of who is responsible for what when it comes to security. Amazon clearly takes responsibility for the infrastructure, but it’s up to each individual customer to secure the application environment that runs on top of Amazon infrastructure, says Neville.

IT organizations, says Neville, are automatically opting to encrypt almost everything in the cloud not just as a matter of security, but also compliance. By encrypting data, IT organizations fall into compliance with any number of regulations without having to worry as much about passing security audits.

Clearly, cloud computing is not going away any time soon. But it is going to be up to each individual IT organization to figure out how they best want to live with it, which usually starts with finding a way to first secure it.